Birds, Chipmunks and Dogs

I haven’t posted in several days about my birds – I have been checking on them everyday and have taken pictures several times as well. I’ll fill you in on those in a minute. But first two other animal stories – first happened this morning –

I came back from my Jazzercise class and let the dogs outside in the back – they ran off the deck and as I walked onto the deck I saw some movement by my flower pots – hiding in the corner was a little chipmunk – he was on the high side of the deck and he may be a young chipmunk so was scared to scale down the post to get away. So I walked on out to the yard to keep the dogs occupied (and check the birds) so the chipmunk could get away by going down the stairs. After a few minutes I looked and he was gone. So I walked back on the deck and came inside. I went into the house and I saw movement under my kitchen table! It was the chipmunk! I had left the door cracked and he ran from the far corner of the deck through the door of the screened porch and into my house! Perhaps he got a snack at the dog food bowl while he was inside. I should have grabbed my camera but I didn’t want him to go any further into the house and get lost. I checked to see where the dogs where – on the far side of the yard – good. So I opened the door back up and shooed (probably isn’t spelled that way) him out to the porch. Then I shut the door to the house, check where the dogs where, and shooed him out of the screened porch back to the deck. He ran all the way back to the corner he started in. I closed the door to the screened porch. Now to get him off the deck without the dogs noticing and let him run to safety. That was the hard part – I finally got him headed toward the stairs but by this time the dogs started watching me and realized something was going on! Here I am running across the yard trying to block the dogs while the chipmunk runs for safety and in to one of his holes – Now the dogs pretty much know where all the chipmunk holes are – they keep close tabs on those. Anyway – with enough interefence from me and some running and hiding by the chipmunk he finally got away to a safe place – now he may have had a heart attack after that – and maybe he learned NOT to come visit my deck, screened porch or my kitchen again!

The second much shorter story – yesterday afternoon Tyler cut the grass in the back yard – and forgot to shut the gate – so later when he let the dogs out – guess what happened? They escaped and luckily we had neighobrs that saw them. Magnolia apparently went to visit her friend Rachel and ended up in their garage and Aspen went across the street from Rachel’s house to play with the little boy that lives there – and they picked him up and called. I missed it all because I went to pick up Ryan from tennis. It was a quick escape, a short adventure and speedy recovery by some good neighbors.

Ok bird update and a funny story too –

The Towhee – the baby must have left the nest this morning – yesterday he was still in the bush and mom and dad were nearby and I just checked and he isn’t there now. There are two eggs still in the nest that didn’t hatch.

The Chickadees – There were three babies in the nest when I checked the other day. Mom and dad are feeding them – they are fast, and small and they fly right into the hole of the birdhouse. So if you don’t watch carefully you will not see them.

The Bluebirds – Mom and Dad are busy feeding the babies. I am not opening the house anymore because I don’t want them to come out early. Maybe this weekend or early next week they should be leaving the nest.

bluebird mom bringing food

Bluebird dad at the box

I was able to get a picture of the Red-Headed Woodpecker. I saw him last week and didn’t get a picture and he came back this weekend briefly to the peanut feeder. The Red-Headed Woodpecker has the solid red head and the one that I have most often in the yard is the Red-Bellied Woodpecker which only has a stripe of red on the back of his head. Once you have seen them both they are easy to tell apart.

Red Headed Woodpecker

The Robins – they are nearly ready to go – I watched them yesterday afternoon and here is the funny story along with some pictures. One of the babies was flapping his wings – I guess he is practicing. So yesterday all of sudden he got up and flapped his wings so hard I though for sure he was going to fly right out of the nest. He didn’t. Instead he ended up sitting on top of his brother! (Ok I don’t really know if they are boys or girls but in my story they are boys). In my picture I can just hear the one saying – “Hey, get off of me!” – Sounds just like my boys when they are sitting to close together in the back of the car. Here are pictures of the robins.